Entertainment, the killer app of broadband

Forget VoIP, or tele-medicine or distance education. Don’t even think about remote working (like we don’t work enough.) According to Firstmile.US the real reason for broadband is entertainment, and it is a perfect delivery mechanism for anything to “amuse us.”

Entertainment is inarguably of economic primacy to Americans. Americans are more than willing to support advertisers and sports stadiums – where sponsors are providing multimillion dollar salaries to those playing games to entertain us. We are more than willing to lavish $20M salaries on A- list film celebrities for their three months of work making a movie to entertain us. We are more than willing to support multiple magazine publications devoted to celebrities to the tune of over $1B annually. We are willing to make gambling on entertainment, both legal and illegal, a multibillion- dollar business. Contrast this with our unwillingness to pay higher taxes to provide better education for our children (a different discussion.) Broadband can provide consumers with more entertainment, in a more convenient way. With appropriate business model changes, entertainment is the killer app that will drive broadband forward and increase the standard of living of Americans still further.

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Clearly, in niche markets we can see the impact of this. Akimbo is enjoying some modicum of success with its foreign fare. The music sales online are increasing sharply. Hell, MLB.com has been printing money. Yup, there might be some truth to the whole broadband for entertainment theory. See, iDisney gets it!